The Devil’s Work

It’s raining. Not normal rain, but that Scottish rain that gets right into your bones. It seems to somehow leak through allegedly waterproof clothing and somehow even solid glass.

It’s not particularly heavy rain, but I am thoroughly damp from head to toe. Not exactly ideal conditions to test a supercar.

In front of me is a perfectly unmarked McLaren 675LT Spider, which, as the name suggests, is the open-top version of the astounding 675LT coupé, which is in turn the crazy cousin to the excellent 650S.

Ominously, it now produces a scary sounding 666 bhp and I now have to drive it in the damp, along tight, winding Scottish country lanes.

Oh, I forgot to mention, it’s left-hand drive, just to spice things up a little. And it costs AED 1,534,500, and they’re all completely sold out.

In other words, it comes with a virtual ‘don’t crash it please’ message from the McLaren development team. No pressure, then.

The 675 clearly shares a number of design traits with the P1 hybrid hypercar, which is no bad thing. But it’s more a 650S on steroids, with wider wings and lines, which increase downforce by 40 per cent.

These additions also provide a more aerodynamically slippery shape and give the car a more complete design. The 675 is also 100 kg lighter than the 650S, which is frankly amazing.

Just a few kilometres down the road, I am dialled back in to wet-weather driving, and, surprisingly, sitting on the wrong side of the car makes it easy to place the vehicle when passing other traffic on the tighter roads.

Want to read the complete test drive? Head to our E-Paper.